Randolph Bourne
Writer
An essayist and intellectual who lived in Greenwich Village, Bourne is an early figure of America's "bohemian" counterculture. Bourne was maimed by forceps during his birth, giving him a disfigured face; spinal tuberculosis at age 4 left him a hunchback. Despite the handicaps Bourne graduated from Columbia University in 1913 and joined the staff of The New Republic, where he made a name for himself as left-leaning essayist and intellectual. He was an outspoken critic of World War I even after America entered the war, a position which made him highly unpopular. He died in the influenza epidemic of 1918, shortly after the war ended. His best-known work is Youth and Life (1913).Bourne appears with astronomer Tycho Brahe in our loop on the Facially Challenged.
Four Good Links
The Randolph Bourne Institute
Not a lot here, but interested parties can contact like-minded anti-war activists
War is the Health of the State
The first part of an unfinished Bourne essay
An Ugly American
2001 review of the play The Body of Bourne, with details on his life
Randolph Bourne
Biographical background and commentary on his writings
Vital Stats
Birth
Birthplace
Death
22 December 1918
(influenza, age 32)
Best Known As
Author of Youth and Life
